Refreshed, inside and out

Good Morning! Have a homemade pumpkin cranberry almond muffin! My kids looked at me with amazement and shocked happiness when they got this 7am greeting from me Saturday morning. I think they wondered where their real mother was. After a week of taking it easy during their spring break, I took the last weekend of it by the horns, I tell you! I assumed having everyone home and me taking only a partial break from work would be really hectic.



But the first official day of it, I realized how nice it was not to pack lunches, do homework, shove some out to the bus, get the laundry dry in the nick of time before loading up the others to pre-school, pickup from track practice, and just generally keep a schedule. I almost missed my car, I was barley in it! JOY! I even rippled like I've been wanting to ever since I saw this and this (who wouldn't try it? Seriously?). I just wanted to see if I could do it, since my previous crochet skills included all of the single crochet stitch. . I need to get that book so I can learn all kinds of ripples. I just kinda figured this one out. Jeff and Juliana kept prying me off of it to make me watch some movies with them, or to send me back to the computer and the deadlines of which they've been hearing me whine about nonstop. How funny, I thought, that crochet became my rebellion. Hysterical, really. I'm a good girl I am. We watched that one too.



By 9am saturday morning I was in the garden chatting with the anemones, and making way for my lilies, hydrangeas, hostas, phloxes, pachysandra, and other expected guests by clearing the weeds out of their beds. I have these cute new gloves, another hand-me-down from Jeff's grandma. After a year of living on her own since Jeff's grandad passed away, she's finally decided to go into a retirement community. She's therefore unloading years and years of various posessions to us. A lifetime of useful tools, dishes, furniture and other odds and ends. It's overwhelming, really. I don't think she's aware of how much we love having it all, grand like the china cabinet, meaningful like the dozens of various creamers she collected, or just simple and useful like the garden gloves. So special.



So it was a colorful, fun, relaxing week, and actually quite productive. I sometimes think I get more done when I take a break. It was such a nice change to care for the children a little more consciously instead of at lightening speed in between other tasks. Lots of little things I've been meaning to do for a long while got some attention. Some exciting developments and tentative possibilities have also been stirring in the studio. So I'll be sharing more, of course.